Spring Has Brought Me Such a Nice Surprise!

Allan's parents have a big apricot tree in their back yard, and it yeilds a lot of fruit. They have been asking us to go over and pick up the fruit that has fallen off the tree for a little while, and they had already thrown out several buckets of apricots, so I decided I wanted to try to make some apricot jam. Monday for FHE we went over and picked up the remaining apricots and got 2 big buckets full. I called Robin and asked her if she knew how to make jam, and she decided to come help me make it. (I am sooo glad I had her help, I couldn't have done it without her and it was nice to have someone to work with!)

So wednesday we headed over to the Staker's house and washed and split the apricots and then soaked them in sugar and lemon juice for 2 1/2 hours while we prepared the jars and then cooked them (I stired 5 batches constantly for 25 min. each) and poured them into said jars and cleaned up our mess. 6 hours later, we had 26 jars of Jam and 2 quart size bottles of Apricot Syrup! (The recipe we found said that you make apricot syrup from the foam when you are boiling the apricots) The best part of this whole thing was that the total cost was $0! We used Robin's jars and lids that she had, the apricots off the tree, and the Staker's sugar and lemon juice! (we left them some jam in payment) Next year we will have to start earlier in the year as soon as the fruit is ripe and we will probably be able to get 75 jars if we wanted to! So now you all know what you are getting for Christmas in 2009, this year you will have to come over to my house to have some!